Hours before Saeed spoke

The spring storm left the region Wednesday, but the louis vuitton handbags Meteorological Agency urged caution as strong winds would persist in northern Japan. Winds of more than 144 kilometers (89 miles) per hour were recorded Tuesday as the storm swept across Japan's main island of Honshu.

Police reported four deaths: two people killed in warehouse collapses, an elderly man who fell off a roof in Iwate and a woman crushed by a fallen tree in Miyagi. Hundreds more were injured.

The storm had halted commuter train service and grounded more than 500 flights in and around Tokyo on Tuesday. Train service was normal Wednesday, but about 70 more flights were canceled.

At two nuclear power plants in northern Japan, cooling of a spent fuel storage pool temporarily stopped because of power failures but resumed in about 30 minutes without affecting safety, their operator Tohoku Electric Power Co. said.
"I am here, I am visible. America should give that reward money to me," he told reporters Wednesday, mocking Washington for placing a bounty on a man whose whereabouts are no mystery. "I will be in Lahore tomorrow. America can contact me whenever it wants to."

Pakistan pushed back against the U.S. in its first official response to the bounty, saying Washington needed to provide "concrete evidence" if it wants the government to gucci bags act against Saeed.

Analysts have said Pakistan is unlikely to arrest Saeed because of his alleged links with the country's intelligence agency and the political danger of doing Washington's bidding in a country where anti-American sentiment is rampant.

Saeed has used his high-profile status in recent months to lead a protest movement against U.S. drone strikes and the resumption of NATO supplies for troops in Afghanistan sent through Pakistan. Islamabad closed its borders to the supplies in November in retaliation for American airstrikes that accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

Hours before Saeed spoke, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides met Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar in the nearby capital, Islamabad, for talks about rebuilding the two nation's relationship. In a brief statement, Nides did not mention the bounty offer but reaffirmed America's commitment to "work through" the challenges bedeviling ties.

The U.S. said Tuesday it issued the bounty for information leading to Saeed's arrest and conviction in response to his increasingly "brazen" appearances. It also offered up to $2 million for Lashkar-e-Taiba's deputy leader, Hafiz Abdul Rahman Makki, who is Saeed's brother-in-law.

The rewards marked a shift in the long-standing U.S. calculation that going after the leadership of an organization used as a proxy by the Pakistani military against archenemy India would cause too much friction with the Pakistani government.
This shift has occurred as the U.S.-Pakistani relationship has steadily deteriorated over the last year, and as the perception of Lashkar-e-Taiba's potential threat to the West has increased.

Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said any U.S. claims against Saeed must be able to stand up in court.

"Pakistan would prefer to receive concrete evidence to proceed legally rather than to be engaging in a public discussion on this issue," Basit said in a statement sent to reporters.

The U.S. may be hoping the reward money for Saeed will force Pakistan to curb his activities, even if it isn't willing to arrest him. But the news conference he called at a hotel in the garrison city of Rawalpindi on Wednesday was an indication that is unlikely, and the bounty may gucci slippers even help him by boosting his visibility.

At the hotel, located near the Pakistani army's main base and only a half hour drive from the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Saeed was flanked by more than a dozen right-wing politicians and hardline Islamists who make up the leadership of the Difa-e-Pakistan, or Defense of Pakistan, Council. The group has held a series of large demonstrations against the U.S. and India in recent months.

Some in the media have speculated the movement has the tacit support of the Pakistani military, possibly to put pressure on Washington.

"I want to tell America we will continue our peaceful struggle," said Saeed. "Life and death is in the hands of God, not in the hands of America."

He denied involvement in the Mumbai attacks and said he had been exonerated by Pakistani courts.

Pakistan kept Saeed under house arrest for several months after the attacks but released him after he challenged his detention in court. It has also resisted Indian demands to do more, saying there isn't sufficient evidence.

The bounty offers could complicate U.S. efforts to get the NATO supply line reopened. Pakistan's parliament is currently debating a revised framework for ties with the U.S. that Washington hopes will get supplies moving again. But the bounties could be seen by lawmakers and the country's powerful army as a provocation and an attempt to gain favor with India.

Saeed founded Lashkar-e-Taiba in the 1980s allegedly with ISI support to pressure India over the disputed territory of Kashmir. The two countries have fought three major gucci outlet wars since they were carved out of the British empire in 1947, two of them over Kashmir.